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a stack of books sitting on top of each other next to each otheran open book with a drawing of three obelisks on itan old book with two pictures of ships in a body of wateran old photo of a sphinx statue in front of a pyramidan old book with a picture of a city in the backgrounda picture of a book with a picture of boats in the wateran old book with a drawing of a building in the middle of ita picture of a picture of a river with boats in itan open book with a drawing of insects on itan open book with a drawing of palm trees in the foregroundan open book with a picture of various items on it
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Estimate €80,000 - €100,000
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Description
[EGYPT] Description of Egypt, or a Collection of Observations and Researches Carried Out in Egypt during the French Army’s Expedition. Paris, Imperial Printing Office, 1809–1813; Royal Printing Office, 1817– [1829]. 9 small folio volumes (38.6 x 25.3 cm) of text, 12 large folio volumes (67.5 x 49 cm) and 2 volumes large in-plano (104 x 67 cm), red half-calf, smooth spine decorated with Egyptian-inspired gilded motifs, top trimmed (modern binding). Collation: Introduction: [1] fol., xcii, 8 pp. (historical preface and colophon) Text volumes: Antiquities, Descriptions, vol. I: [2] ff., 60, 28, 20, 26, 38, 8, 26, 18, 448, 22, 16 pp., [1] folio; Antiquities, Descriptions, Vol. II: [2] ff., 70, 36, 24, 16, 20, 44, 79, 51, 27–98, 22, 24, 12, 95, 12, 63 pp., [1] fol. (Chapters XIX, XXI, XXIII, XXV and the beginning of XVIII are missing); Antiquities, Memoirs, vol. I: [2] folios, 826 pp.; Antiquities, Memoirs, vol. II: [2] folios, 238 pp.; Modern State, vol. I: [2] folios, 1018 pp.; Modern State, vol. II: [2] folios, 736 pp., [3] folios, 3, 2, 2, [2] folios, 2, 2 pages, [2] folios, 3, 3 pages, [3] folios, 2, 2, 2 pages, [1] fol., 2, 2, 2, 2, 3, 2 pp., [2] fol., 3, 2, 2, 1, 4 pp., [3] fol. État Moderne, vol. II (Part 2): [2] folios, 848 pp.; *Natural History*, vol. I: [2] folios, 350, pp. 1–8, [1] folio, pp. 9–58, 128, 339, [2] folios; Natural History, vol. II: [2] ff., 752 pp. Plate volumes: Antiquities, vol. I: [2], 4, 2, 1, 2, 1, 3, 1, [2] ff.; Antiquities, vol. II: [2], 4, 4, [1], 6, 6 ff.; Antiquities, vol. III: [2], 2, 8, [1] ff.; Antiquities, Vol. IV: [3], 6, 1, 1, 2, [1], 2, 2, 2 ff.; Antiquities, vol. V: [2], 4, 1, 1, 1, 1, 3, [1], 4, 5, [1] ff.; The Modern State, vol. I: [3] ff. ; Modern State, vol. II: [3] ff.; Natural History, vol. I: [2] ff.; Natural History, vol. II: [3] ff.; Natural History, vol. III: [2] ff.; Natural History, vol. IIII: a volume consisting solely of plates. First edition, with a print run of 1,000 copies. A MONUMENTAL WORK, RICHLY ILLUSTRATED 877 copper-engraved plates, of which 40 are coloured on the plate and/or hand-coloured in watercolour, gouache, and occasionally with gum arabic. Text volumes: 45 plates as inserts, including 4 portraits (Monge, Berthollet, Conté and Lancret), distributed across Antiquities, Descriptions, vol. II (1); Antiquities, Memoirs, vol. I (15); Antiquities, Memoirs, vol. II (21); Modern State, vol. II (3); Modern State, vol. II (Part 2) (3); Natural History, vol. II (2). Plate volumes: 832 plates spread across 13 volumes: 386 plates for Antiquities, 170 plates for the Modern State, 244 plates for Natural History and 32 plates for the Atlas, distributed as follows: Antiquities, vol. 1: 88 plates, including 4 colour plates. Plate no. 87 exists in two states and 1 plate is unnumbered. Plates 1 and 4 are missing. Antiquities, vol. 2: 61 plates, including 18 in colour. Plates 10 and 66 to 75 are missing. Antiquities, vol. 3: 42 plates, including 1 in colour. Plates 15, 17, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 30, 33, 35 and 51 are missing. Antiquities, vol. 4: 60 plates, including 2 colour plates. Antiquities, vol. 5: 73 plates. Plates 44 and 75 are missing. Modern State, vol. 1: 76 plates. Modern State, vol. 2: 81 plates. Plates j and EE are missing. Natural History, Mineralogy, Botany, vol. 1: 77 plates, including 13 colour plates. Natural History, Zoology, vol. 2: 62 plates. Natural History, Zoology, vol. 3: 65 plates. Natural History, Insects, vol. 4: 40 plates. Atlas, geographical maps: 32 plates, including a map entitled *Egyptus Antiqua*. 21 plates are missing. Also contains 13 plates from the ‘Modern State’ volumes, including 1 colour plate and a map of Egypt known locally as Missi. The in-plano volume contains 62 plates from the ‘Antiquities’ volumes, including 2 colour plates.
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About the sale Books, Manuscripts & Antique Engravings, including the José Luis Dotti Library
Auction location
Auction time 09/23/2026 at 2:30 PM
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